World Cup hopes tumble for Bahrain football team

Riffa

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Despite putting up a tight fight, Bahrain's 2018 FIFA World Cup and 2019 AFC Asian Cup hopes were badly dented last night as they went down 1-0 to North Korea at the National Stadium in Riffa, with the lone goal scored in the 43rd minute by 2010 AFC Youth Player of the Year Jong Il Gwan two minutes after coming off the bench to replace So Hyon-uk.

The defeat for Bahrain, a team coached by Argentine Sergio Batista and captained by Hussain Baba Mohammed, was its second in the second round of Group H qualifying after losing its opener 2-1 in the Philippines back in June. This send the Kingdom’s team to the bootom of the group.

North Korea coached by Kim Chang Bok and captained by its goalkeeper Ri Myong Guk though made it three wins from wins to top the group after previous wins against Uzbekistan (4-2) and Yemen (3-0).

Bahrain started with Sayed Jaffar (goalkeeper), Faouzi Aaish, Abdulla Al Hazza, Sayed Mohammed Adnan, Hussain Baba Mohammed and Rashid Al Hooti (defenders), along with Sayed Dhiya Shubbar, Sayed Ahmed, Abdulrahman Al Malood, Abdulla Omar (midfield) and striker Jayce John Okwunwanne.

Prior to the goal, Bahrain replaced Aaish by striker Sayed Ali Hashem and looking for an equaliser fellow strikers Abdulla Yusuf Helal and Sami Al Hussaini were introduced to salvage something from the match.

Meanwhile, Uzbekistan (2-3) moved to third place in the group with a narrow 1-0 victory over basement team Yemen (3-0) in Tashkent thanks to a 51st minute goal by Alexander Geynrikh, while the Philippines are second with two wins from two and six points in its account.

The next round of matches are on Tuesday when both Bahrain and Yemen will be desperate for their first points when the two meet in neutral Doha on Tuesday, with Philippines hosting Uzbekistan in Bocaue.

The group winners and four best runners-up (total 12 teams) will advance to the 2019 AFC Asian Cup finals and the third round of qualifying for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in two groups of six to be played on a round-robin basis.

The next best 24 teams from the preliminary stage of the joint qualifiers will compete in a separate competition for the remaining slots (12 slots or 11 slots + 1 slot for the host) in the 24-team 2019 Asian Cup.

Meanwhile, in other matches last night, Qatar decimated Bhutan with 15 goals to none in Group C, while UAE followed suite and sinked Malaysia 10-0 in Group A.

In group G, South Korea did a number on Laos scoring 8 goals and conceding none, while Malaysia faced a 9-0 defeat under the hands of a dominating Kuwait.